


Blood Bonds

by Dragonemerald, SVER_Fate



Category: Code Vein (Video Game), 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bakugou Katsuki is a Good Friend, Class 1-A Utsushimi Camie, Class 1-A Yoarashi Inasa, F/M, Hatsume Mei is a Good Friend, Kendou Itsuka is a Good Friend, Midoryia Izuku doesn't exist, Minor Character Death, Parental Kan Sekijirou | Vlad King, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, U.A. is a University (My Hero Academia)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-17
Updated: 2020-12-07
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:08:50
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27070255
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dragonemerald/pseuds/Dragonemerald, https://archiveofourown.org/users/SVER_Fate/pseuds/SVER_Fate
Summary: Sekijiro Yakumo was a Hero Child, more specifically, the son of Vlad king. Someone who was able to use his blood the same way his father has.The different thing about him is that his ability was simply MORE.
Relationships: Bakugou Katsuki/Hatsume Mei, Original Male Character(s)/ Female Todoroki Shouto, Original Male Character(s)/ Himiko Toga, Original male character(s)/ Original female character(s)
Kudos: 4





	1. The Vow

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone this is a rework of the original chapter of my story Blood Bonds. A huge thanks to my friend/brainstorming buddy turned co-writer Pixel you are awesome.

**October 28, 2205**

It was Fall. The leaves were turning, dancing as they fell to the earth and there was a chill in the air signifying to all who would listen that the season of death was here. 

Sekijiro Kan, more commonly known as the Blood Hero: Vlad King wasn’t dressed in his usual hero outfit, out fighting a villain, or saving someone’s life. No, he would much rather be doing that. Instead, he was dressed in all black and surrounded by his close friends and colleagues. His hands rested on the shoulders of his four-year-old son, Yakumo, who was also dressed in black and wearing a hooded shawl, to comfort him as the tears ran down his face. No, today, Kan isn’t a hero; today, he is a husband and father burying the love of his life.

It had happened ten days ago; Kan was out late on patrol when he was contacted by his agency, his liaison sounding grin and defeated:“Vlad… W-we… we just got contacted by the police… there's been a villain attack over at your residence.” 

Vlad had been shattered. It had taken him three agonizing seconds to switch over to his hero persona again and start rushing home, eager to make sure his wife and son were okay, praying and muttering as he ran through the rooftops and swung across streets to the grisly scene that would haunt him for the rest of his life: his wife being zipped up in a body bag and his son with her blood across his face, shaking uncontrollably in fear. 

Kan's hero mind could already identify many signs of what was there and what was going to plague his son in the future: panic attacks, PTSD, Vengeance, hatred… he couldn't classify everything that was happening or was going to happen. But he could run over to his son and hold him tightly, try his best to comfort him. Because he had failed to keep his family safe, he had failed at a hero's most respected duty. 

All he could hear in response to his attempts to reach his son was him repeating, “It was the blue monster, it was the blue monster"

Kan forced his mind back to the present as people slowly began to leave, offering their condolences; a small creature with a scar over it's right eye approached him and told him with a solemn air about itself. “The offer still stands. Now more than ever, friend.”

“Thank you, Nezu. I will keep that in mind,” Kan replies, at which Nezu nods his head and passes them by, approaching an underground hero who had accepted Nezu's offer when he had offered them both the job. The father-son pair is then approached by their family friends, the Bakugos. 

Bakugo Katsuki is the first to detach himself from the family across them and moves over to Yakumo, noticing he is no longer shedding tears. He grimaces a bit, but steels his determination and speaks "Hey Kumo, look. We'll get through this. I'm… not very good at this but… I mean, You said it yourself; our bond is thicker than blood, yeah? We'll get through anything together!” Katuski holds his fist up to Yakumo. Trying to be enthusiastic in hopes of cheering up his friend.

Yakumo looks up and gives his best friend a small smile. Deeply aware of his discomfort. “Yeah, you’re right. Thanks, Kacchan.” The two bump fists and after Katsuki’s parents give a quick hug to Kan and Yakumo, they leave.

And with them gone everyone else had left, leaving the father and son to stand there in silence. Infront of the grave of the third member of the family. Finally, Yakumo spoke up. Voice laden with conviction and self-assurance “Dad, I want to be a hero.”

This wasn’t something new to Kan; his son always said he wanted to be a hero like him. The memory of the serious, if childish declarations brought a small smile on his face “I know you do...” 

“NO!” his son shouts. Trembling in some intense emotions, and he whips around to stare at his father, leaving the man shocked at the boiling pools of red “I want to be a hero. One so great that when people see me, they will feel safe, one so great that when I'm there they will know everything will be all right. They won't be scared, angry they won't…” his son takes a deep breath, further steeling his determination, visibly tensing himself. "So they won't be like I am now!"

His eyes are impossibly wide as he stares down at his son to see him staring back up at him with the same red eyes he has. And for a brief second, it looked like Yakumo’s eyes flashed a bright red, an eruption in boiling lava.

Kan could only nod his head and look up at his wife’s grave. He hasn't known his heart could be squeezed by so many emotions. He wants his son to be a hero, because he knows Yakumo would do great, he wants his son to be a hero because he wants his son to be happy.

But...

He doesn't want his son to be a hero because he'll get hurt. He doesn't want his son to be a hero because he is scared of what's out there, his life matters little at the prospect of his son's but he cannot protect him out there. Cannot prevent his son from leaving him like his wife has. 

He smiles bitterly. They'd warned him. All of them, all of the heroes that saw Yakumo had warned him that his son would grip his heart like so. His turmoiling emotions were almost beautiful. He took a deep breath himself, with the passing thought of how it must be in the family. 

"Of course, son. But you'll have to be prepared…" he trails off ominously, putting on his pro hero mask "... With this in mind, I cannot- WILL not go easy on you, your tears and pleas will matter little at the prospect of training. Will you be able to endure it?" He asks and observes his son. Who cowers slightly in front of his severe faced father. But closes his eyes and sets himself rigid again, before opening them and looking at him with eyes bathing in the light of determination.

“Yes sir.”

**15 Years Later**

Yakumo is sitting on the stage at his group's usual hang out, looking at the sky while plucking away at cords on his guitar. He has changed a lot since the day of his mother’s funeral: Now 173 cm tall and muscular, yet not overly bulky, thanks in part to his quirk and all of his training. His hair, which was initially all black like his mother’s, has now faded into a greyish white on the ends like his father’s, his eyes, however, have remained deep red. One thing that also hasn't changed is that he still wears the hooded shawl that was the last gift his mother had given him. He and his friends had been training to get accepted into UA as he had requested of his father that day, and the time to show the fruits of their efforts: the entrance exam. Was fast approaching being only a couple months away. 

He was so absorbed in thinking about his past and where the future would take him and his friends that he didn’t hear Katsuki approaching him until he yelled, “Oi, Kumo!” and gave him a gentle kick to his leg to get his attention. 

He, of course, was jolted from his thoughts and frantically tried to keep his balance at the edge of the stage. He eventually succeeded, with his best friend staring at him with humour in his eyes

“Oh, hey Kacchan. Sorry, I didn’t hear you coming.”

Katsuki huffs, halfway amused and halfway annoyed “Of course you didn’t; you were daydreaming again. Anyway, Mei has been trying to reach you all day; I think it has to do with your gear.” 

Hearing this, Yakumo shoots up. Excitement shining through his eyes, almost literally “Really? Let's go! Let's go!” He packs up his guitar as fast as he can and rushes off. Katsuki only shakes his head and smiles, moving to catch up to him.

After about a thirty-minute trip, during which the pair had met up with another of their friends, Itsuka Kendo, they arrive at the gates of UA. Yakumo had already called ahead so his father and Nezu would know they would be coming so they could be let in. The entire time, he was excited and wouldn’t stop talking about his new support gear, almost jumping as he walked. Katsuki didn’t mind, and frankly, he was pretty excited about this, knowing how much blood (literally, in Yakumo's part), sweat, and tears have been put into this project. 

Finally reaching the Support Department’s main lab, they met up with the final friend in their group, Mei Hatsume, who was wearing her usual friendly, if certifiably insane smile. 

Yakumo walks up to her, still excited and almost mirroring Mei's usual hyper attitude “Hey Mei! sorry about not responding earlier. Had all sorts of stuff to do and-”

Mei just shrugs and replies, not bothering to listen to her friend's excuses. He didn't respond and that was fine, she usually had a hard time doing that too. “Eh, no worries." She waved the topic off and began rocking on the balls of her feet, excited as usual. "Well, are you ready to see my newest baby!?” Yakumo and Mei head into (read:Dash into) the room first with Katsuki and Kendo following in behind them more sedate and lax in their conversation and pace.

Kendo leans over to Kastuki and whispers, “What do you think the odds are this one is going to explode?”

Katsuki laughs. “Ha, knowing her... I'd bet on it.” They walk into the room and see Yakumo and Mei standing in front of a glass case displaying a primarily black trench coat with dark red highlights that split in the back. In the center of the coat is what seems to be a big spearhead. 

Yakumo is gazing in awe at the coat when Mei speaks up, “We are calling it Night Spear. We had to set up some pneumatic pistons and electric circuits and...” Mei rambles on and Yakumo stares up at the costume/gear, listening to Mei with half an ear but commiting to memory nonetheless. Katsuki and Kendo smile at the two friends, same old same old.

A few hours, later the gang walk into their usual hang out at a music shop named Melody Masters. The shop owner, a tall, well-dressed man with a purple cane and a large black afro, was at his usual place behind the counter. As the group walked in, he smiled. “Ah, my favorite customers! How’re you today?” he exclaimed in a voice reminiscent of a 90's radio dj, upbeat, energetic and generally likeable.

“Hey Brook. Everything’s great; my support gear’s almost finished!” exclaimed Yakumo, excitement and rolling off of him like waves

“Too bad, you’ll have to wait since you can’t use it during the exam.” said Kendo, all calm during the storms of excitement that occasionally call themselves Yakumo and Mei. She lightly giggles at her mental naming. Before paying attention to the only one that's able to go head to head with such storms

“Yeah, you’d need it to stand a chance of beating me.” Retorts Katsuki. All proud and tall, happy glint in his eyes and wild grin on his face, he may have been less aggressive but that doesn't mean he doesn't have what it takes. 

“I can’t wait to see it in action,” said Mei, mirroring and feeding off Yakumo's excitement only to feed it back. She loved it, it was her life's work, passion, and her own way of heroics at the same time. 

Yakumo laughs, a competitive equally wild edge to it. “Ha, remind me; who wins more often when we spar, Kacchan?” 

Katsuki’s face immediately drops to a scowl. Even though the glint never leaves his eyes “I LET YOU WIN LAST TIME, YOU BASTARD!” his hand pop and crackle with the power of his quirk.

As the two friends start bickering, Kendo and Mei shake their heads and look through the shelves for either themselves or the two grinning and arguing idiots near the entrance. Mei thinks she can make a field silencer for them and Kendo, or her, could activate it whenever they start arguing. 

"I mean… it would save us some hearing for when we grow old?" Kendo suggests during their laughter. And Mei nods frantically, already halfway into completing the blueprints of the project. Kendo smiles, she had barely changed since her middle school days, yet she had also changed a lot, simply by being able to come here and talk with them, even making jokes that made people laugh. 

"Then again…" she muses as she turns her towards Yakumo and Katsuki. 

"...Those two could bring about any change." She finished her thought and idly clicked shut the illusionary 3D player and took out it's card, dispelling the memories of nights they spent talking to each other about fears and nightmares, holding Katsuki back from blowing up and Yakumo from falling into blind panic.

She and Mei uploaded the music file into their cards and left, dragging the two boys by their collar or their shirt until they got the message and followed them.

The group head out back to the stage where they usually hang out. Brook smiles at the controlled chaos, packing away the on sale music card back to it's shelf and keeping an eye on the retreating backs of the friend group ‘ _ Watching the four of you grow up reminds me so much of me and my friends. I have no doubts that you will be the ones at the forefront of the new generation of heroes.’  _ The thoughts throw Brook into reminiscing about his past and his old friends.

Out back on stage, the group sit on the edge of the stage, which has been built to face the park, allowing park-goers to come and enjoy anyone playing music. 

Yakumo and Katsuki were still bickering back and forth when Mei, who is already tinkering on her next project, speaks up. “Why don't you two just settle this at the exam?” before promptly falling back into her "baby trance" as she calls it. 

Kendo adds in, “Yeah, better than listening to you argue all night... again”. She makes sure to exaggerate her groan and shaking of her head to appeal for Yakumo's sympathy. Sure, call her manipulative. But she'd rather not have to take care of her friend's sore throats because they spent two straight days arguing about which underground hero was better (that they had no actual way of knowing who they were and had totally used illegal means to get footage of, she just can't prove it.) and Mei was in reclusion and working on another "baby". 

The two look at each other and nod their heads. “YOU’RE ON!” they exclaim in unison. And let out a few coughs that makes Kendo temporarily worry that she might have to do it all over again. After a few minutes, everyone quiets down, and Yakumo pulls out his guitar and starts tuning it again. None of them know why, but Yakumo's guitar is almost therapeutic to them. Even if Katsuki denies Yakumo's any good at playing.

“Hey, you realize the exam is only a few months away, right?” Yakumo says distractedly. Listening to the murmurs of their chatter as he messes around on his guitar. 

“Of course; what about it?” Kendo replies. Mei looks up from her project while Katsuki fiddles with his phone (He is NOT playing candy crush, that was his mother and you cannot fucking disprove him!). 

Yakumo plays some chords on his guitar, usually to stop himself from fidgeting whenever he is anxious. “I guess… it’s just what I have been training to become... What WE have been training to become... What happens if we don’t make it in, if I...” 

Katuski looks up from his phone. Already having a good idea of where that thought line was going and not liking it “Don’t you dare finish that damn sentence, Kumo, or I swear I’ll kick your ass. We have been training for this since we were kids. Besides, we made a vow, didn’t we?” 

Confused, and a little betrayed that something seemingly as big of a vow was made without her and, from the looks of it, Mei. Kendo looks from Katsuki to Yakumo. “What vow, what are you talking about?"

Without looking at her, Yakumo replies, still with a distracted tone in his voice “The vow to become Pro Heroes together, to protect everyone we can, and… to find the man who killed my mother.” Everyone falls silent for a few minutes in contemplation. It wasn't uncommon for Yakumo to either go into a blind rage or fall into a depressive spiral whenever his mother, or the man who killed her was mentioned. All of them had seen a fair share of what Yakumo named "his darkness", similar to how they had all seen his light, laughter and friendship. His anxiousness was somewhat understandable, fair even, considering what his worries were.

Yakumo’s guitar and soft singing voice disturbed their collective reminiscing

“I won't just survive

Oh, you will see me thrive

Can't write my story

I'm beyond the archetype

I won't just conform

No matter how you shake my core

'Cause my roots, they run deep…”

**A Few Months Later**

The day had arrived. The UA entrance exam was finally here. Yakumo stands by UA’s gates, waiting for the others to arrive.

‘ _ This is it, the first step in becoming pro heroes and finding the bastard who killed mom’ _ . The thought made him growl, As he stood there thinking to himself, he heard an ‘eep’ behind him and turned around in time to see a young woman starting to fall. Before she could hit the ground, his arm shot out around her waist, stopping her fall and breaking him of his dangerous thoughts. “Are you all right?” he asks as the woman regains her footing.

“I’m fine, thank you, sorry, I wasn’t paying attention,” the unknown woman apologizes with a light and soft tone and. She stares at Yakumo, and he takes the time to observe her brown hair and eyes with a round face adorned with a permanent blush that he finds fascinating, if not a bit strange. 

“Don’t worry about it—” he starts to say. But is interrupted quickly.

“Kumo, what did you do now?” Yakumo turns around to see Katsuki and his other friends have arrived and smiles at them in lieu of a greeting.

“Nothing; she was starting to fall, and I caught her,” he replies honestly.

“Kumo?” asks the girl, confused as to why someone would be named after clouds.

Yakumo turns back to face her chuckling at what he predicts is her line of thinking. “Oh, sorry, my real name is  Sekijiro Yakumo, and no, I'm not named after clouds, my dad doesn't have that type of jokes " he chuckles at her growing blush and introduces his friends "These three are Mei Hatsume, Itsuka Kendo, and Bakugo Katsuki.” Mei and Kendo both give her a quick hello while Katsuki just huffs, he has to keep his professionalism after all. “Are you here to also take the hero exam?”

The girl nods her head and smiles brilliantly, happy to meet new people. “Yes, I am. Are all of you taking it as well?”

“Itsuka, Bakugo, and I are; Mei is here to try out for the support department,” the group talk for a bit longer about everything and nothing before they hear a bell sound. As everyone starts to leave, Yakumo speaks up, remembering the expression of Kendo and the slightly more distracted than usual attitude of Mei in reaction to Katsuki mentioning their vow “Guys, wait a second.”

“What is it, Kumo we need to get going." Sighs Katsuki. He knows that glint of "I won't leave them behind" and wonders who he is trying to save now.

“Let’s make a vow,” Yakumo says and ah, Katsuki understands now, he does wonder why he included round-face in this, however. “that next time we meet, it won't be as friends, but as students of UA!” Yakumo smiles with his shout and puts his fist up. Mei and Kendo smile and both put their fists into the circle, signing their support.

“God, you’re a damn sap Kumo.'' Katsuki shakes his head with a grin while also putting his fist up. The single nod passed between them in lamentation of their fault and promise to do better by their friends, and the newest friend. 

The four look at the girl, and Yakumo nods his head. “Come on, join us. Uhm, sorry, I don’t think we got your name.” he smiles sheepishly at her to put her at ease and briefly wonders why people like it when he is sheepish.

The girl comes over and also puts her fist up. Inwardly sighing in relief “Uraraka, Ochako Uraraka. It’s nice to meet all of you," she enthuses, smiling. After they bump fists, the group head off to their corresponding testing areas to face the challenges that lie ahead. Just a little bit stronger from their wow, a bit more determined to win. 


	2. First Battle of Many

Testing Grounds B, Yakumo stared at the other applicants at Testing Grounds B, then whined almost pitifully. “Man, look at all of them! Some of them even have their own support gear! So why couldn’t I use miiiine?"

“That’s because you had to make it yourself, dumbass. Now stop whining and move before I kick you off the damn bus,” Katsuki growled lightly behind him, making Yakumo almost jump forward.

After he stepped off the bus, he looked at the crowd of applicants again, noticing Ochako in the crowd as well as another face he hasn’t seen in a long time. He shouted a greeting. “Hey Tenya! Long time, no see!” 

Tenya turned around to look at them and started chopping his arm out of habit. "Hello, Sekijiro and Katsuki! Yes, it has been a long time. How have you been?” 

Before Yakumo could reply, Katsuki nudged him. “The doors are opening.” 

“Sorry, Tenya. We’ll have to catch up later.” Yakumo smiled in apology and the three walked through the crowd towards the opening gates, passing Ochako in the process. Yakumo put his thumbs to his mouth in preparation and bit the tips, drawing blood. He crossed his arms, turning the beads of blood on his thumbs into small blades. Then, in one smooth movement, he sliced them down the sides of his arms, causing them to bleed further.He ignored the gasps and shouts of shock with practiced ease and focused his attention on the gates.. 

After the tense silence of just staring at the opening gates, the blood on Yakumo’s arms turned into solid, three-foot-long crimson scythes.The second the gates finished opening, Yakumo and Katsuki rocketed off into the testing ground.

Some of the applicants, Tenya and Ochako among them, stared, stunned at the pair dashing into the testing ground. “Hey, they didn’t give the sound for the test to start!” someone shouted from somewhere in the crowd.

“What’d you think, that heroes just sit around and wait for something to happen? It’s all about being proactive, hahaha!” Realization dawned on the crowd as Present Mic's laughter rolled over them, and they all started stampeding into the test site. At the same time, Yakumo and Katsuki were already a few blocks in, blasting and slicing away at any robots that were unfortunate enough to find them. 

Finally, the pair stopped at an intersection, not in the least bit winded. "Hey, Kumo!" Katsuki called just as Yakumo was preparing to launch himself forward again. “Let’s split up here; gotta give you a chance of beating me,” he said, smirking at Yakumo.

  
  


Yakumo smiled calmly. “You mean so YOU have a chance of beating ME.” His eyes shone with a familiar competitive gleam, responding to the gleam in his rival’s. The pair went opposite directions down the road, creating destruction as they went. By this point, the other applicants had spread out across the test grounds and started to destroy their own robots. The ten minute mark could faintly be heard in the background of the cacophony of noises generated by the fighting examinees.

Meanwhile, up in the observation deck, the faculty of U.A. were watching the applicants slash, bash, explode, and cause all kinds of damage against the somewhat cheaply made robots (the examinees had to stand a chance, after all). Vlad King was seated next to his fellow teacher and friend Shota Aizawa, the underground hero with whom he was employed. Next to Aizawa sat Nezu who was watching the cameras with a smile while he sipped his favorite tea, and finally, on the end of the row seated beside Nezu was a frail looking blond man who was just getting over a coughing fit. 

The atmosphere around them was what can only be described as "lightly tense." Serious, but not overly so. Kan shook his head at his analogy. Ectoplasm would have his head if he knew Kan made these types of analogies; Kan was among the few that still shivered when he heard "Ectoplasm" and "literature" in the same sentence. 

Without taking his eyes off the multiple screens, Nezu took another sip of his drink and addressed the frail man, capturing Kan's (and most of the room's) attention. “So Toshinori, what do you think of this year's applicants?” he asked in a light tone, almost as if discussing the weather and not something that could potentially—will most definitely—change the world.

Toshinori leaned forward in his chair a bit, refusing to peel his electric blue eyes away from the monitors across from them for even a second. “Although most of them are intelligent, great at combat, and some, perhaps, could even be good rescuers..." he took another breath before continuing again. "... I've not yet seen the heart in them. The determination to save just because you can. ”

Nezu chuckled hearing this, and Kan shivered. That laughter was always unsettling for him (and the rest of the staff). Nezu eyed the red button in front of him, a malevolent air rising around him. “Well, we haven't pushed them to their limits yet. Let’s see who has the true making of a hero under dire circumstances!" he cackled madly and pressed the large red button. 

The ground rumbled in response and Kan swore he heard Nezu mutter "Showtime, little mice..." razor sharp focus, bringing a new round of shivers. He focused on the monitors regardless, both for his son and for other applicants. Mostly for his son, though.

Yakumo landed on the ground with a crouch, coming down from making a veritable bladestorm of blood to tear apart a group of robots which put him over fifty points. He took a deep breath to settle himself and gathered his expended blood around him when suddenly everything started to shake. Clouds of dust exploded into the air around an intersection a block ahead, followed by a large mechanical hand that smashed into the top of a building, followed by a large head that rose through the dust to tower over the testing grounds. Yakumo suddenly realized what Present Mic had meant when explaining the rules. “ _ The fourth kind of opponent is worth zero points, and frankly isn’t worth the time and should best be avoided.”  _ Looking at that monstrosity, Yakumo really thought Present Mic had downplayed "Best be avoided" a little.

There was a three second gap of dead silence before applicants started running past Yakumo to get away from the massive machine, some in fear and some simply in pragmatism. “You're fucking kidding me! Like I would go after it even if it  **_DID_ ** have points,” Yakumo heard one of them shout as the applicant ran past him. Yakumo sighed and prepared to dash away when he was stopped by a call.

“Help!” Ochako called out while trying fleetingly to free her leg. She had been trapped by debris from when the robot had smashed the building, and most of the rubble was too large for her to move.. She would have sighed at the irony if she weren't so afraid right now. Trapped under rubble, she had become exactly the type of person a future hero like herself should be saving. 

As she lamented and rambled in her head, a large shadow appeared over her. She looked behind her and saw the large fist of the zero pointer coming down right on her and her fear increased twentyfold. She knew she couldn’t free herself in time; she couldn’t lift anything to protect herself and even if she could, she'd only stall the zero pointer before it crushed her. Terror and dread mixed in her gut before vanishing in a moment of clarity and acceptance. She realized it wouldn’t do her any good to be scared, so she closed her eyes and mentally apologized to her parents. After all they've done for her, after all—

__ A loud crash and the sounds of straining joints and metal derailed her thoughts and sent her into distress once again. She was a bit occupied with her emotions, but Ochako thought she heard her name.

  
  
  


A familiar voice shouted at her and knocked her straight out of her panic. She looked around at the figure in front of her before finally getting her brain in order she recognized—

“K-Kumo?” she said in confusion. After a moment, the sound of straining metal and everything else in front of her registered, and she looked up, following Yakumo’s arms. Ochako was shocked to see them raised with what looked like a giant red shield over them. She looked back at him and saw him wearing a smile on his face, most likely to try and keep her calm. In the back of her mind, she noted that it was working.

“Ochako, can you move?” he asked her in a strained voice, throwing caution and procedures out the window because he couldn't exactly protect her and handle that monstrosity by himself. He was also slightly scared for his friend, even if they had only just become friends today.

She shook her head, she stared at Yakumo in slight awe because he had just blocked another strike of the zero pointer, which had decided that Yakumo and Ochako were the easiest targets and had now started on pounding its fists against Yakumo's shield. "N-No, my leg is pinned and I can't reach some of what has me trapped,” she said, hating herself for being so useless right now.

Yakumo went silent for a second, trying to conjure up a plan, but a loud CRACK cut through the other sounds as Yakumo’s blood shield fractured. Welp. When the going gets tough, you gotta rely on the stupid plans. " _ Story of my training," _ he quipped inside his own mind and brightened his smile before addressing Ochako.

“All right, I saw you using your quirk earlier. Can you make yourself float?” She nodded, looking a bit apprehensive, which he filed that under the "can do but is difficult" category of her abilities. Not that it gave him a better plan. “Okay." He took a deep breath, the joke of breathing running in the family briefly ghosted through his mind. "When I say so, make yourself float. You may get a bit scratched up, but I promise you WILL be okay.” His smile turned a bit apologetic, which injected a slight levity to the situation. He was still enduring and blocking hits with his shield, and the blows had started to get faster. 

“What about you?” she asked, smiling a small smile despite the concern filling her voice.

“Don’t worry about me! I’ll be all right,” Yakumo replied, giving her a big smile which failed to alleviate her concern, but at least widened her own smile. He idly noted that he liked that smile, a sure sign that she'll be a good friend. “Ready?” He tensed himself as the cracks on his shield got to the point where they grew faster than he could stop them. She nodded and he crouched even lower as another fist approached. “NOW!” Yakumo shouted. He mustered all the strength he had and forced the fist a few precious feet to the left and upwards of them, parrying the punch as his shield shattered and uncoalesced into liquid again. He quickly pivoted with the backlash of his parry, turning and shooting the uncoalesced blood under the rubble and lifting it just enough so that he could use the rest of it to launch Ochako to safety.

As she was flying backwards and out of the range of the gigantic zero pointer, Ochako sighed and fought back the usual nausea. " _ This is slightly more important. _ " She urged herself to focus and flipped herself to face the scene with practiced ease—and her blood froze as the giant fist of the annoyed robot crashed down on top of her friend, who was still smiling up at her. “KUMO!” she screamed and the blood-quirk user was shocked enough to dive forward in an effort to save himself from the imminent crushing force.

Ochako frantically tried to think of a way to help her friend while keeping herself in zero gravity, but then a giant explosion ripped apart her distress, and her concerns were further interrupted as an ash blond blur of pure fury rocketed past her, shrieking. “KUMO, YOU FUCKING DUMBASS!” 

Katsuki kept making explosions to increase his speed from the recoil and "sharpened" his anger, using the lessons about combat anger management Hound Dog had forced him through to increase his focus. "Steady…" he murmured, although it sounded like a growl. "...Just about…" he growled further as he neared the offending appendage and rocketed over his best friend, locking onto his targets. "...RIGHT THERE!" he screamed as he threw his hands forward and launched the move which he called "flak blast," which consisted of firing a big explosion, which ignited the other nitroglycerin particles he shot forward with the original speed he built up and the added force of throwing his arms forward. The smaller explosions knock the zero pointer off balance, causing it to stagger uncontrollably. 

Yakumo turned to his friend, still smiling despite the gears turning a million miles an hour in his head. “Heya, Kacchan—”

“Don’t you, 'hey' me! What the fuck were you thinking!?" Katsuki screamed at Yakumo, his blood boiling at his friend doing something so reckless, but also knowing he couldn't exactly prevent Yakumo from doing dumb shit like that because that's what his friend thinks heroics is. 

“I didn’t want to lose Ochako, okay!" Yakumo exclaimed, acting the part of a petulant child in an attempt to ease his friend. He'd trusted his friend to cover his ass, but he was sure that had been a terrifying experience for what was basically a more advanced trust fall. For both sides. "Besides, I knew you’d be here,” he confessed in a soft voice with an even softer smile. 

Katsuki just huffed. He understood what his friend was saying, but that didn’t aggravate him any less. Suddenly, the zero pointer which had since regained its balance threw a fist down at the pair, activating its booster rockets for good measure. Both boys leapt back, dodging the impact, but the force blew them back farther, and they landed near Ochako, who had run back toward when she saw them talking. “I think you made it angrier,” Yakumo remarked in a light tone, and winced as the nearby buildings groaned and continued to crumble, the ominous sounds causing further panic among the fleeing applicants.

“What can I say, it’s a special talent of mine!” Katsuki retorted with a snark, a worried undertone in his voice as his eyes locked on to the unstable buildings the zero pointer had staggered into. Yakumo huffed, drawing Katsuki’s attention, and he saw something in his best friend's eyes. Yakumo has a plan (a lot of plans!)

Yakumo glanced at Ochako, who had stood back up after breathing heavily because of her run. “Ochako… are you all right? Can you walk?” 

She nodded her head in response, figuring he already had a plan. The zero pointer started scanning around itself, likely looking for an easier target. Neither Ochako nor Katsuki miss Yakumo’s face tightening.

“All right." Yakumo nodded to himself, determined. "Listen to me. Can you go and make sure no one else is trapped? That thing isn't gonna stop and we have too much time left for it to not cause any damage.”

Ochako nodded her head again. Gratitude and determination filled her; her friend had a plan. She'd trust him. “Yes." She made to move, but hesitated, haltingly turning around to look at the duo, who were staring at each other. "But what about you two?”

“We’ll keep it distracted as long as we can.” Yakumo grinned at her with a similar smile as the one he had smiled when he was about to be crushed. Ochako kinda hated that smile, and if she was reading Katsuki's narrowed eyes right, she wasn't alone in that.

She hated doing this. She hated that she couldn't be useful in combat, she hated that her new friends were already picking up her slack. She hated that she wasn't—She forcefully shook her head. She would worry about everything later; right now, she had a job to do and by god nothing was going to stop her. She nodded as much to herself as to them. “Okay. Please be safe, both of you.” She gave them both stern looks as she said so, especially Yakumo, and turned around to run off checking for anyone else who was trapped.

“Distract it? More like turn it into a pile of trash.” Katsuki grinned wildly, allowing himself to fall into his sharpened rage once again, ready to follow his friend’s orders. “So do you have a plan?” He looked at his friend with a look that said he didn't expect anything less than twenty plans.

Yakumo, whose eyes were glowing brightly, blinked and grimaced. After a second, he replied, “A couple actually—" Katsuki scoffed "A couple," his bright shiny butt. That grimace meant at least thirty. "—but you're probably not gonna like Plan D.” 

Yakumo quickly told his plans to Katsuki just as the machine locked its eyes onto a trapped applicant Ochako was freeing. 

Both boys dashed forward, neither willing to let it attack without getting through them first. Katsuki prepared to unleash another flak blast, aiming his sweat at the joints of the robot as Yakumo conjured a blood whip from the sluggishly bleeding slices on his arms. He shot the blood whip forward and grabbed onto the shoulder of the zero pointer, pulling on it and giving Katsuki a clear shot of the joint. Katsuki ignited his hands to make this attack count when the zero pointer swung its other arm, recognizing and blowing away the sweat Katsuki had thrown forward while also sending the explosive quirk user flying into a building. 

The resulting boom sent rage, dread, fear and hatred running in equal measures through Yakumo's gut, "Plan G, then!" he shouted and pulled on the whip, forcing himself onto the arm of the machine and started running forward, planning to use his blood in place of Katsuki's attack for this one.

The zero pointer, recognizing the threat and the strategy, sent volts of electricity across its body and Yakumo screamed in pain as he was electrocuted, hundreds of volts through his body. 

Meanwhile Katsuki got up as pain shot through him. He poked his side to check for injuries and winced. “ _ Fuck three—no, four cracked ribs. Fucking asshole robot!”  _ His self-examination was cut off when he heard Yakumo scream, and his head snapped up to see his friend being shocked, spasming in place, stunned as visible electricity crackled across his skin. He gritted his teeth, his rage roaring louder than any beast or machine. 

He made a move to save his friend, but then remembered Yakumo clearly telling him to proceed with the plans unless it looked like death was imminent. He couldn't suppress the shiver that traveled down his spine at the way his friend's eyes had glowed when he said that. The pure anger and bloodlust that had shone in the eyes of his friend had been… scary. 

He shook his head and relit his anger. It roared to the surface faster than greased lightning. “ _ Fuck it! Time for Plan S!”  _ Katsuki gathered his sweat and turned, launching it once again, but this time aiming it at the ground floors of some of the damaged buildings next to the zero pointer. The robot noticed and turned to avoid the falling rubble from the building, thus deactivating the electricity coursing over its metallic body. 

As Yakumo recovered from the shock, the movement from the giant machine caused him to slip and fall off. He panicked for a second before his training kicked in and a calm, self-assured mindset settled back over his mind. He cast his vision around, spinning with the fal and noticed Katsuki getting into position blasting towards him, raising his arms as if to catch Yakumo. “ _ Plan S it is. This should be fun.”  _ Yakumo tucked his body into a ball to fine-tune his position and uncurled his legs just as his feet connected with Katsuki’s arms. The blond released the largest explosion of the day, which rang out with a deafening BOOM over the area, making almost every participant jump in fright.

The loud explosion also caught the attention of the zero pointer, and it turned its head just in time to see Yakumo with his arms outstretched in front of him, his blood forming a spearhead and his legs perfectly straight behind him, making him look like a bullet or an arrow. Yakumo shouted in exhilaration at the speed he was going as he punched through the eleven layers of armor on the zero pointer’s head like it was made of cardboard and grabbed some wires to slow down his momentum.

_ "I'm in. Now for the big show…" _

He once again drew his long blood scythes on his arms and started slicing away at everything and anything inside the giant machine with renewed vigor and excitement. He kept hearing systems running out of power, crash, or outright fail, but nothing seemed to be working to stop the Zero pointer as it staggered from Yakumo's first impact and turned its attention back into Katsuki, Ochako, and the group of rescued people with them. 

Yakumo gritted his teeth, glaring at everything around him in intense frustration. He was in the head, he had cut off almost everything here! He had heard the systems fail! How could this monstrosity still be moving? He calmed his quickly hastening breathing and lightly chided himself.  _ "I can't panic now; everyone needs me!"  _

He was desperate and he knew the controls for this machine weren't here, defying the usual robot build that U.A. had. If he couldn't stop it in its head, he needed to stop it by its chest. The only problem was that he had no fucking clue how to get there, and he wouldn’tn't have weapons for that long before they melted. He couldn't vault or launch himself, and there were still thick wires and plating in the way!

His dad was a man of his word and had taught him a lot of things to do under stress at the first step. Unfortunately, nothing really qualified for this situation, so he had his creativity for now.

Taking a deep breath, he cast for memories inside his mind, searching for anything that might help him when he remembered his father grabbing him by the shoulders and almost glaring at him one day after hero training. He had said, “Yakumo... I can use about five liters of blood before I need medical attention, so…” The memory was dismissed before it finished, as a plan began to form at lightning speed. "Of course, sometimes the best plan is the simplest," he grumbled lightly to himself even as he kept adding to his plan. It was a stupid plan. No, not even a plan; it was a dumbass course of action, but it was the only one he had left and betting on time or the robot holding back didn’t seem to be great options, so...

“Emergency plan Z time... goddammit.” He grit his teeth and willed four liters of blood out of himself and immediately knew it wouldn't be enough. He would need more. "Dad said 'medical attention', and not 'death.' I am going to regret this…" he grumbled and pulls even more blood out of himself, figuratively squeezing himself dry. He imagined the shape, thickness, and direction he wanted the blood to go, fighting off lightheadedness and the increasingly better looking option of falling asleep, and commanded his blood. It formed a shell around him and lightly pushed him upwards. He waited for the apex of his jump...

By this point, yhe zero pointer has lumbered over to the applicants and prepared its fist. Katsuki was staring at it, standing in front of Ochako and the other injured applicants with defensive fervour, despite his two very obviously broken arms.  _ "You trusted me then, I have to trust you now… come on, Kumo!"  _ He faced the gigantic fist coming down onto them when he and the others heard the sounds of shearing metal.

Yakumo grinned inside of the Blood Sphere as it started shearing the steel below it with the spinning Blood Lances he had out below the sphere. He took a deep breath and fought off nausea and the impending unconsciousness and smirked ferally when his sphere encountered further resistance, which meant his sphere was around the joint parts. He screamed out the name of his improvised attack, both keeping him in the moment and conscious, “ **IRON MAIDEN!!!”**

Katsuki's eyes almost popped out of his sockets at the sheer surprise he felt when hundreds of spears of blood violently burst out of every single inch of the robot's chest, completely thrashing the chest and the joint areas. The spears recede as quickly and as violently as they burst out and after a second of calculations about the sheer fucky volume of blood, Katsuki blasted his quirk again, despite his broken arms, and screamed in both pain and anger as he dashed forward through the absolute hail of metal to find Yakumo.

Yakumo tried recalling as much of his blood as he could, but most of it was tainted by oil and other fluids from the machine, and couldn't serve its primary function of letting him live. And if he had to guess he lost about forty—no, probably closer to fifty percent of his blood. "Oh joy…" he snarked as the sphere coalesced and he began to fall further. He was dizzy as all hell, nauseous, his breathing was coming more rapidly and shallowly, and the sweet release of sleep (death) never seemed more enticing… all in all, obvious signs of severe blood loss. 

He vaguely heard explosions from the decimated machine resounding around him as he fell in his sphere. He was losing his battle against being conscious and knew he WOULD die if he didn't do something. His addled and blood-loss ridden mind tried to come up with something, and the best he figured was to open up the top of the sphere. This proved to be a massive mistake because the second he tried to use his quirk, all the usable blood went back into him and the rest just turned into liquid and started raining down..  _ "Must be a failsafe,"  _ he idly thought to himself. 

People were screaming and shouting as he fell, though this mattered little to him with everything around him starting to go black despite his efforts. 

As he was about to pass out, he felt two pairs of hands, one soft and gentle and the other calloused and trained, grab him, and the welcoming blackness engulfs him. A faint chime followed him into unconsciousness.


	3. First Steps Taken

Back in the observation deck, the room was in a dead silence. Everyone's eyes were riveted on a single screen among the cluster of others denoting the finished tests at the other sites. Many were stunned in disbelief, though a few were nothing less than glowing with pride. Kan, despite being so proud of his son, couldn’t help but panic inside seeing him on the ground unconscious. He was trying to get over the "Dad instincts," as they were called, when the hero father of a hero son/daughter worried about his children almost excessively.

He took a deep breath and calmed himself, though only by a small margin, upon seeing his son's friends checking on him and making sure his condition did not get worse and taking notice of Recovery Girl having already arrived at the testing grounds. 

Finally Snipe broke the dead silence. “What the Blazin' HELL was that! That wasn’t a first year zero-pointer! Hell, that wasn’t even a third year Disaster!” The normally calm and level-headed cowboy pro voiced the thoughts of almost everyone in the room. A chorus of agreements following his statement and eyes locking onto the principal.

Nezu chuckled and took a sip of his tea and spoke in a voice that was more at home at a showman's grand finale rather than a hyper-intelligent chimera. “That, my friend, is potential at it’s finest.” Nezu smirked at the screen. A vicious gleam rested in his eyes that sent shivers down the collective spines of the room. Yet most of the room noticed, even if they did not mention it, his being rather close to the "safety console" used to attain emergency command or self destruct functions of the machines.

Toshinori's eyes were glued to the screen even though the show had long since ended and Yakumo was being taken away by his friends. He smiled to himself. “Well, these two… these two might just have what it takes,” he mused, holding back his instinct of transforming and shouting out. It was a bad habit he needed to stop. 

Aizawa, on the other hand, hated everything to do with this. He hated how the exam was held, he hated the game Nezu had played, he hated the way 

his colleagues weren't as prepared for something going awry as he and Nezu were. He hated how those idiots would probably be in his class and he would have to teach them, again. He held back the urge to sigh heavily. Sure, he liked Kan's children (and yes, he was adding Katsuki into that category; he had seen enough proof that nobody could change his mind) and rather enjoyed the training sessions he had had with them, but he wouldn’t enjoy having to control their particular brand of chaos. 

He shifted his glance towards the rat, along with others. He knew Nezu liked the children, maybe even more than he did. He knew Nezu never did anything without reason, so why… 

He was jolted out of his thoughts when Hizashi leaned on him and sobbed (only half dramatically, he knew. No matter what Hizashi said) about the cute listeners getting into way too much danger for his tastes and how he should "talk to Nezu about this." He held in the urge to snort; the only people with any kind of control over the principal were the two children they were talking about, and he knew it.

Nemuri, however, was in another world entirely. It was a world of questions about how the hell she got here watching the two children UA had almost taken as its own, fighting a battle together that she doubted she, a pro hero with many takedowns to her name, could fight alone. Sure, she was proud of her, dare she say, sons, but surely there were better ways… 

She chuckled to herself. She was beginning to sound like Shota, although that didn't mean she wasn't agreeing with more of his points about the entrance exams now. 

Thirteen just leaned into the group of Hound Dog, Cementoss and herself and whispered, "Does anyone have any idea why the air's so thick?" 

Cementoss gave a shrug. He wasn't focused on the other teachers, and wasn't much worried about the "sons of UA" as some of the third years had been calling them either. The children were powerful and getting appropriate challenges for it. He also had trusted Nezu to not forget the fact that other children were also being tested. 

Hound Dog gave a few sniffs before growling in a low voice. "Just the children, Thirteen. You know how the others can get overprotective of them." 

Cementoss sniffed, causing a bit of dust to start flying around. "As if he isn't all that protective," he mused, pointedly not looking at Hound Dog's clenching and unclenching claws and decidedly not mentally cooing over how Thirteen tilted her head in question, and then bounced a bit while nodding her head. 

Meanwhile, Ectoplasm was stuck with Snipe and the man's furious ranting which, more often than not, slipped into English and contained many threats, some which made Ectoplasm cackle quietly as he waited for the cowboy hero to simmer down from his protective rage. Ectoplasm wasn't exactly worried, but Snipe usually was. He was a caring person under all of that "cowboy," and had once carried a kazoo in his mask to a rescue just in case he needed to make the surviving children feel better (spoilers: it worked like a charm.) To be honest, he appreciated the man's protective rage. He may be calm about it, but that didn't mean he approved and he made that clear with a glare at the principal. Still… some quiet from Snipe would've been good...

One week later, Yakumo was out back on the stage at Melody Masters playing his guitar as he waited for his friends to arrive. His father had handed him a closed letter and given him strict instructions not to open the letter until the entire group was together (they had absorbed Ochako into it almost without question by this point). A bit later, Katsuki arrived in his usual loud fashion and only reduced his volume to a normal conversational tone as the pair sat down and started chatting until the girls arrived with their plus one regular-at-this-point. Kendo and Mei had gone to meet Ochako at the station to make sure she wouldn’t get lost and had fallen into a spiral of topics, getting delayed because they walked slowly while talking. 

“We’re here!” called Kendo from inside the shop. The two boys got up and headed to the front of the shop to meet their friends.

Yakumo smiled and waved at the girls. “Took you long enough,” Katsuki huffed, hands in his pockets, which drew a quiet, exasperated chuckle from Yakumo.

“I’m sorry, I’ve never been here before and—” Ochako started to apologize, waving her hands around. 

“Don’t worry about him; he’s just being an angry firecracker,” Mei said, interrupting her and trying to put their newest member at ease. 

“What did you just say!” Katsuki growled as his hands crackled. His eyes glinted with rage and he had a scowl on his face, a truly intimidating sight that cowed almost nobody in the group, especially Mei, who just smiled warmly at him. Katsuki huffed in response, but didn't say anything else.

“Anyway,” Kendo started before things became too quiet and turned to look at Yakumo, “what was this about your father saying he had a letter for us?” she asked, and the rest of them smiled excitedly.

Yakumo shrugged, still keeping his smile. “That’s all he told me, that the letter was for all of us and to NOT open it until we all got together.” His dad had been really insistent on that, almost using the "hero glare™" on him. Yakumo gave a light shudder. His dad could be scary at times. 

Kendo tilted her head, intrigued by the mystery of the message. “Must be important then," she declared and turned to the store's owner. "May we use the loft, Brook?”

The tall man bent around the corner to look at the group. “Need you even ask? Of course you can!” he smiled at his regulars, figuring out the UA Exam results had been released today from the other excited customers that had come and gone before his regulars had arrived. 

Ochako was shocked at how steeply the tall man could angle his body. She swore that had to be some kind of record or something! “Is he—How can he—” she stammered, blatantly staring at the still-bent-around-the-corner Brook, who grinned at the newest member of his regulars. 

“You get used to it,” the others said in unison, paying no mind to the fact that their unison made Ochako shudder and looked uncertain between them. "Some things are better not thought about…" almost all the group mused in their heads as they headed upstairs to the loft. Ochako followed them after a few seconds.

Ochako looked around the warm and inviting space. The loft was a well-furnished room with a few couches and chairs around a coffee table. A flatscreen hung on the wall surrounded by numerous signed guitars and other collectable music memorabilia. Ochako noticed the others had taken seats on the circle of couches around the table and quickly joined them, getting a few chuckles at her astonished face in the process.

"Wow… this place must be expensive!" she said, still amazed at some of the old musical instruments and decorations. She thought she could see a walkman on one of the shelves! A walkman! How rare was that?

“Well, are you going to open it or are we just going to stare at it?” asked Katsuki after the earlier conversation fell off and they were staring at the letter.

“Yeah Yakumo, open it!” exclaimed Kendo. The other two girls nodded in agreement, their excitement almost infectious. 

Yakumo looked at his friends and nodded as he ripped open the envelope. A small golden disk fell onto the table. Everyone exchanged looks of surprise because on the top of the disc was a golden laurel surrounding the well-known letters UA.

Suddenly the disc came to life, projecting a hologram of a man above it. It took the group a few moments to identify him as Vlad King in his hero uniform sporting his trademark scowl, although his eyes shone with warmth because of who he was addressing.

“Hello kids. Before I get to the point of this message, I just want to say I have watched the four of you grow up into amazing young adults, and I am proud of all of you immensely, and I think you will go off to do great things… That being said, Mei, I would never have thought the girl who broke into the UA Support lab as a child would not only make it in, but get here on a  _ recommendation _ at that.” 

Everyone turned and looked at the pinkette in disbelief. Mei was cackling wildly, barely noticing the almost disbelieving but resigned shake of Vlad King's head. 

“Kendo, who knew the day that Yakumo and Katsuki started training at your family’s dojo they would find a life long friend in you. You have great discipline and an even greater heart. I know you will make a great hero.” Here Vlad King's mouth twitched upwards to a smile and Yakumo almost cackled. It was funny, in a weird way, to see his father try so hard to be professional. Meanwhile, Kendo smiled at the compliment, happy that pretty much the most present hero figure in her life thought that highly of her. 

“Miss Uraraka, though we have not met in person, I watched your actions during the exam, thank you for helping to save my son. I look forward to seeing you grow into a fantastic hero. Also, please help the girls keep those two troublesome boys in line.” 

Yakumo rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment and Katsuki’s eye twitched in annoyance. To be fair, they kinda deserved that… not that either of them were going to admit it or not give a hard time to Yakumo's dad.

“Katsuki.” the hologram of Kan sighed and scrunched his eyebrows. “Where do I start with you? I have watched you grow from an angry, problem-causing child into a troublesome, yet fine young man. When your flaws were pointed out to you, you didn’t ignore them. You took the actions needed to improve yourself. This is something that even some adults have a hard time doing. You and Yakumo have been best friends, always helping each other through rough times and building each other up. For this I thank you, and I want you to know I think of you as a son.” 

Katsuki stared wide-eyed in silence at the last statement. Sure, his family had similarly taken in Yakumo, but he wasn’t like his brother in everything but blood, (they had tried to be that too, didn't end well.) He was aggressive and loud, he wasn't— 

A bump on his shoulder interrupted him, and he snapped his head up to stare at Yakumo, who was smiling softly in a chiding manner at him, likely knowing what he was thinking and silently rebuking him for it. Katsuki scowled at him in response, getting a huff and a side glance before the holographic image of Kan re-attracted his son's attention.

“Now, for you my son. I was worried the day we lost your mother that I had also lost you, but you've shocked me with your resolve to become a hero, and even more so with how you overcame every challenge I threw your way. You have grown into a fine young man. I’m so proud of you and I know your mother would be too.” The hologram smiled warmly at Yakumo, who smiled back shakily, fighting back the tears stinging his eyes. Yup, he loved his father. 

“With that said, Miss Uraraka, you placed fifth in the exam. Kendo, you came in fourth. Katsuki, you came in second, and Yakumo, congrats you had the top marks in the exam.” The hologram of Vlad smiled. “So allow me to be the first to welcome all five of you to UA!”

After that, the hologram shut off and the five friends sat in silence, processing the things said. Mei and Ochako gave the rest time to properly deal with the emotional moment from the message. Mei thought that she'd gotten better at this social-cues thing Kendo kept telling her to learn. 

"I FUCKIN' KNEW IT! WE'RE BADASS!" exclaimed the blond bomber, cackling and grinning smugly as the silent atmosphere got swept with excitement at his outburst. 

"YEAH! UA!" Mei exclaimed along with him and brought both Kendo and Ochako into a side-hug, joining Katsuki's cackling. 

"Amazing. I knew we could do it!" Kendo laughed while giving a fistpump with the hand not being squished between hers and Mei's bodies. 

Ochako joined in the celebration by starting to hop in place, which forced the other two to follow her lead and chant "UA, UA, UA!" While Katsuki popped small sparks from his hands and chanted along, although his chanting almost sounded like growls. 

Yakumo watched his friends and felt his heart almost bursting with happiness. He loved these people, and he was very proud of each and every single one of them. He dabbed at his eyes to wipe the oncoming tears away and grabbed Katsuki, joining the jumping-hug-train with the girls and continuing to chant until they all got tired and collapsed onto the couch, all bearing huge smiles on their faces. 

Footsteps from the doorway caught their attention. Turning around as well as they could from being seated, they saw Brook standing there with a wide smile. “Congratulations, I never doubted you for a minute! How about we make this into a proper bash, let’s say here this weekend?” he proposed with the flair of a showman, spreading his hands and gesturing to the group with both palms.

The friends looked at each other and passed silent messages via shrugs and smiles. “Sounds like a plan!” Yakumo said with a wide smile, already planning out what he was going to wear and how it was going to go.

That Saturday, hanging from the stage was a banner that said “CONGRATULATIONS” across it. There was laughter, music, and an overall good mood in the air. The party attendance wasn't huge, only consisting of Yakumo, his friends, their parents, and Brook. Okay, so it wasn't exactly small, but they were popular people! 

Yakumo was walking around the party talking to the various guests who were attending when he came upon his soon-to-be principle. “Hey Nezu! You know that robot you sent at us during the exam was  _ really _ tame for your usual treatment.” He grinned in obvious sarcasm, almost matching the eerie grin of his friend/parental figure (they never exactly talked about it.)

Nezu chuckled while taking a sip of his tea, a vicious glint appearing in his eyes. “I will note that for next time.” A collective chill went down the spine of everybody at the party, Yakumo not excluded, although he always felt these chills in excitement, as opposed to fear. Whenever he mentioned that, everyone looked at him with this sort of resigned pity… how strange. 

Katsuki yelled from behind him, his voice carrying an obvious undercurrent of despair. “Why would you  _ challenge _ him? Yakumo, are you out of your mind?" 

Nezu glanced over to Katsuki, who promptly chose to turn away out of self preservation. He may be up there in the list of people Nezu liked, but he didn't have the safety of Yakumo. 

Nezu's eyes narrowed, although he kept a pleasant smile, and took another sip of his tea. “By the way, please come by my office soon. It has been awhile since we have had some tea together. I will need your insight on a few things…” he trailed off and watched the nearby people (Katsuki) look at Yakumo with concern. "It never gets old…" he muses. 

Yakumo just grinned at him again instead of showing the typical fear. And oh, how that delighted Nezu. "Sure thing, Nezu. I wanted to hear a few of your opinions anyway." If anything, Nezu's smile grew wider, bordering on the point of a grin. 

“I, too, would like to have both of you come in for sessions before classes. I want to catch up with both of you and see how you are doing,” stated Ryo Inui, feeling particularly brave and wishing to save the others because even he can see they’d lost Yakumo to Nezu a long time ago, and Vlad's going to drunkenly cry about it, either tonight or tomorrow… He kinda gets why Eraser doesn't particularly like Vlad. 

Both boys just nodded their heads, one thankfully and the other distractedly. They both knew what he meant. During the exam, both of them had lost their cool on several occasions, and neither outbursts were on the "normal" side of freaking out. That sort of ordeal usually needed to be dealt with, preferably via talking to someone.

Off to the side, Kan and Hizashi were chatting alongside a tired and annoyed Aizawa. “Why did you drag me along to this?” Aizawa butted into their conversation about housepets because  _ No, Kan. Dogs aren't better than cats and you're gonna have to get past my cooling body to get Yakumo a cat. _ Okay maybe that was overkill, but that's exactly why he cut off the conversation—aaand he missed a chunk of Mic's rambling. 

“...Brighten up and enjoy the party, Sho! After all, they’re also the students you've gone so soft for! ” Hizashi said with his usual aplomb. Shota can't quite bring himself to hate Mic for calling him out like that. (Even Shota wasn't that blind enough to miss his marginally better treatment of the kids.)

Kan nodded his head in agreement. “That's true. I’m still shocked at how well they handled that monster of a machine.” All three fell silent for a moment, thinking back to the exam before they carried on with their conversation, obviously electing to "forget" some parts of Yakumo and Bakugo's battle. For their mental sake, if not their sons’.

A bit later, Yakumo and the rest of the group were chatting in front of the stage. “It’s not fair! Why am I the only one who isn’t in 1-A with the rest of you!” whined Kendo upon hearing she was in 1-B and away from her friends. Sure, that probably meant new friends, spread wings, better vision, and all those nice and easy words, but she would've at least liked someone to be with her! Her class wasn't even close to Mei's class, and she fully knew that Yakumo and Bakugo were "friend magnets" and attracted people to them as easily as that title made it seem. 

Before, that hadn’t been a problem. None of them came from great places, even with someone like Vlad King being a family friend. So the people that flocked to them were usually terrible people that were bound to spark a fight between themselves and Yakumo/Bakugo (Mei and her kinda had bets going on how quickly those new people would be dropped like a bad habit by either of them.)

“Don’t worry Kendo; it's not like we won’t see each other everyday, right?” Ochako stated, trying to cheer her up, but she was more hopeful rather than factual. Fact of the matter was that she had no idea what was supposed to happen now, since she hadn't spent much time researching the pro hero course. Ah, well, she had friends now, so that was okay. 

“I’m not even on the same side of the building as you guys,” shrugged Mei. That didn't matter, exactly. She could make babies that allowed them to talk 24/7 If they liked. She was cool with it. 

“Let’s be honest; Aizawa wouldn’t be able to handle all of us together anyway. He would probably kill one of us, expel one of us, or both,” Katsuki remarked, taking a sip of his drink. 

Yakumo laughed, nodding his head in agreement. One would think that the first on the chopping block would be easy to distinguish between himself and Katsuki, but their friends were just as chaotic as them. Especially Kendo. Never doubt Kendo, the woman was the definition of a devil in disguise.

As the group continued to chat, Brook came over and whispered to Yakumo and Katsuki, causing them to look up on the stage and then back at each other, smiling. Both boys jumped up onto the stage, Yakumo picking up a beautiful black-and-red Fender electric guitar. As Yakumo tuned the guitar, Katsuki headed over to the black Yamaha drum set and adjusted it to his liking.

Noticing the pair taking to the instruments on the stage, Nezu smiled a rare, soft sort of smile and brought the stage to everyone's attention. “Looks like we are in for a one-of-a-kind treat…” he trailed off, obviously not feeling the need to finish his sentence.

Nemuri looks up at the stage upon hearing this. She would admit to being slightly terrified, even if she knew that Nezu wasn't always evil ("It's a conditioned response at this point. Not much we can do but tremble in fear when he smiles." She remembered Hound Dog shrugging helplessly about it.) “Wait, Bakugo knows how to play the drums?” she asked, confused. Everyone knew Yakumo could play and had heard him play at least once. But not Bakugo. It wasn't out of some low opinion of the boy, not really. Bakugo was liked as well as, if not even better than, Yakumo by some people. It was just that they never thought he was as much into making music as he was listening to it. 

“He started learning shortly after Yakumo took to learning the guitar,” Mitsuki stated. Without looking at Nemuri, she grinned widely and added, “ He’s right though; you  _ really  _ are in for a treat.” 

Before anyone else could comment, Yakumo started with a simple tune, and a few seconds later Katsuki started playing, followed shortly by Yakumo singing.

“Like an unsung melody

The truth is waiting there for you to find it

It's not a blight, but a remedy

A clear reminder of how it began

Deep inside your memory

Turned away as you struggled to find it…” 

As Yakumo and Katsuki continued to play, everyone could feel just how passionate the boys were and the pure emotion Yakumo was putting into every word. Slowly, the boys started to draw a crowd of bystanders from the park as well.

Mitsuki was with her husband towards the back by the makeshift barriers Brook had put up for the party when a soft voice spoke up next to her and startled her. “His voice, he is able to reach out to all these people so easily. Moving them so firmly…” 

The owner of the voice seemed to be in awe with how she trailed off. Mitsuki turned and saw a beautiful girl no older than her own son with long raven-black hair almost flowing to her mid-back, piercing eyes the color of amethyst and a perfectly angular, yet soft face marred only by a long and faded scar under her left eye. Her outfit certainly was odd. She was wearing a white and cream sundress that opened in the front at the thigh level so that the rest of the fabric looked like some sort of cape, andsoft silver boots, which Mitsuki thought were the weirdest of them all, since it wasn’t cold enough to be wearing boots. 

But Mitsuki, being a mother for a long time (and a successful mother, if she said so herself), grinned at the newcomer and, slightly puffed up in pride, deciding to engage the odd girl in a conversation. "Yup, those are my sons all right. 'People magnets' some of my friends call them!" She snickered at her own joke, only to be met with a raised brow and a thoughtful expression. 

The girl she was talking to tilted her head, the motion smooth and gentle. "I see, although I must say… don't they look a bit too different to be brothers?" 

Mitsuki let out a full-blown laughter. "Nah! They're my sons much as they're Nemuri's. a lot of people sorta adopted those two and their two friends. We all just kinda call them our children to get over the semantics; otherwise there'd be no end to the arguing!" 

The girl stared at her for a while before turning back to the stage. "They are certainly talented. Is it a quirk at work here? This many people wouldn't just gather for talent, I think…"

Mitsuki stared at the girl pensively for a few moments before smiling at her and chuckling. "Nope! My boys are all natural talent!" She laughed a bit and refocused on the stage. 

"I see… I—" the girl was interrupted as a feeling of dread swept over everyone at the party, causing a momentary hitch in Yakumo's singing. 

A few moments passed as Yakumo drew out a word before the crowd collectively shrugged and the atmosphere slowly turned to normal, with the exception of a few pro heroes now missing from the party. 

Mitsuki, who was mildly observant, just raised an eyebrow at the collective shrug and turned to ask her conversation partner if she felt anything, only to find her gone. 

Shortly after the song ended, everyone at the party and the small crowd that had formed start cheering, asking for an encore. The duo looked at each other and grinned before swinging into the next song. 

A few hours later, the party finished. Yakumo and the others, along with his father and Katsuki’s parents, were helping Brook finish cleaning, but ever since that ominous feeling during the party, Yakumo’s mind had been partially elsewhere. Eventually, they finished cleaning and were standing out front of Melody Masters. Everyone was about to head their separate ways, yet they started to chat a bit before that, both families having not spent much time with each other. 

“Sorry Kacchan, but there is something I have to do,” Yakumo cut in and apologized to the rest of the group and rushed off, leaving most of the group confused except for Katsuki, who knew exactly where he was going and wasn't going to say jack about it. His brother deserved to mourn whenever he wanted. 

A bit later, Yakumo stood in front of his mother’s grave in contemplative silence when he heard footsteps approaching him from behind. "Only two people that could ever be," Yakumo feebly joked, but the person walking up ignored it. 

A strong hand rested on his shoulder, and without looking away from the grave Yakumo leaned into it and said, “That feeling, at the party, it’s the same one from that night.” He clenched his fists as a reaction to the torrent of memories, the sleepless nights, and the tormented days he still had occasionally. He was vaguely aware of the blood leaking from his fists from his quirk, but he had little care for that. 

Kan gently squeezed his son’s shoulder. No words were needed from him... not yet. This ritual of theirs was simple; no words that weren't hurting scars bleeding out were needed. "A venting session of sorts," Kan grimly noted in his head and turned his attention to his son.

“I miss her so much. Some days I can remember her perfectly...” Yakumo trembled before he spoke again. “...but others, all I can remember are her screams from that night.” Tears started to trickle down his face, and he shivered like a leaf in a storm, lamenting the death of his mother and the following… event, as he did so. 

There was a long silence as Kan waited for his son's trembling to end, for the quiet heavings of not quite panic emotion to fade. That was part of their ritual, after all. 

“Do you remember that time when you were three and you got stuck in that tree?” Kan finally asked, proceeding with their final step, the happy memories, the celebration of life.

“I got stuck in the tree? I vaguely remember you tossing me in the air and  _ you  _ got me stuck in the tree. I also remember mom was furious and chased you around the yard,” Yakumo replied with a shaky grin and a waver in his voice that both he and Kan ignored as the father and son laughed. Kan supposed it was the repetition of the undercurrent of their ritual that kept both of them grounded here. 

_ "Mourn the dead, but celebrate their life." _

He shook his head and mildly chastised himself; this was no time to be philosophical. “Let’s go home. There is a lot to do this week,” said Kan. Yakumo nodded his head, and the father and son turned and started heading home and sharing stories.

  
  


As the pair walked away, a beautiful woman from far, far away watched them. Dressed in white, which contrasted with her long raven hair, her deep blue eyes tracked her son walking through the graveyard along with her husband, and she could do no more than to contentedly smile and wish both of them good luck on their journey through life. 

  
Yakumo felt a warmth wash over him—no,  _ through  _ him—and he turned to face his mother’s grave one more time to see the setting sun washing over it with the last remnants of it's light. He smiled and turned to keep walking home with his father, a warm, content feeling pulsing in his chest, similarly reflected in the eyes of his father

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone SVER here!!! Sorry this chapter took long to come out a lot kept me and Pixel busy the past month.   
> So everyone made it through!! Also a new mystery girl made an appearance I wonder how she is connected to our boy?
> 
> Also I am going to reference every song we use throughout the story in case anyone would like to give them a listen.
> 
> Chapter 1 song - Rise by State of Mine
> 
> Chapter 3 song- The Light by Disturbed
> 
> Thanks for all the support everyone is showing it really does mean a lot. Until next time!
> 
> BTW Me and Pixel are working on a new story ;)

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone this is


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